As long as you love me (eng)
by thebeautifuldamned
Summary: An umpteenth anniversary, alone; haunted by the smiles of Rin, Obito, Minato and his father. Two years, after the 4th Great War, Kakashi, sixth hokage, feels particularly alone and he never thought it would hurt so much; he watched silently as his pupils grew up. Except Naruto and Sakura didn't see it that way.


**_ as long as you love me  
****friendship, family**  
**personnages principaux : Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno & Naruto Uzumaki.**

A light breeze was blowing through the streets, he gently suppressed the thrill that took him when a stream of air touched his neck and he plunged into the house, with a lasy and dragging gait. The heavy silence that reverberated between the walls of the old building jumped at his throat; as every night, he found himself alone, drowned in his painful memories and his dark ideas. A sad-looking sigh escaped from his lips and he swung his shoes in a corner of the entrance, dragging his feet to the living room. So many memories lingered in the recesses of this place, that he still did not understand, years later, why he continued to live there; it was killing him slowly, but he was still standing in the middle of the room.

Two long weeks had flown since the end of the fourth great war, and the victory of the Shinobi alliance; two weeks since he was obliged to say "goodbye" to the two people who mattered most to him for so long. For a second, during the war, when a disturbing trickle of blood was escaping from his torso, he had hoped to lose his life there on this battlefield; he had hoped to join his father up there, far from the suffering that gnawed at him, always a little more, over the years.

The slight "tick" that floated in the room drew his attention to the old clock, anchored in a cheap piece of furniture; the arrows indicated sadly twenty-three hours forty. Twenty minutes, in twenty minutes, it would take another year; Only. His ebony prunes clung to the photo frame, which hung along with dignity on a piece of furniture, in a gentle, almost trembling gesture, he caught it and lost himself in the memories of an almost happy existence; he remembered the day well, his father had accompanied him joyfully to the academy, proud that his little boy was growing up so fast and a few weeks later he had killed himself, on the floor of the living room where he was. He remembered that day, the first thing that struck him, when he entered the house, was silence; this silence and darkness, his gaze had clinging painfully to the silhouette of his father, curled up on a piece of the ground, in a purple river. Something had broken in him at that moment.

A few blows against the door of the entrance drew him from his dark thoughts and the frame found its place sadly, on the furniture; a growl escaped from his lips, when the blows resounded again. With an exhausted gait, he pulled himself to the door and opened it, his eyebrows frowned; surely a little angry at this person who felt intelligent to come to his door, at such an hour. He would have liked to get a little more angry, swung wickedness at this person, but when his prunes of a beautiful ebony collided with the blonde hair, a big smile on his lips, at the doorstep; his heart simply missed a beat.

\- « oye, Kakashi-sensei. » exclaimed the blondinet, a hint of excitement in his throat. « you took a long time, you were in the bathroom ? »

A fist suddenly crashed against the blond's shoulder and he smothered the painful moan between his lips, moaning something in his non-existent beard; a shy smile on his lips, a pink hair bent politely forward, a huge box in her arms.

\- « good evening Kakashi-sensei. » she gasped, in a soft voice. « excuse the lack of delicacy in this idiot, but he was really looking forward to seeing you. »  
\- « Sakura. » said Kakashi, frowning. « what are you doing here ? »

The blond seemed to regain his immediate re-encement to his master's question; he took a straight posture, his torso swollen, that big smile on his lips, bags in his hands.

\- « you didn't think we were going to miss your birthday ? » he exclaimed, cheerfully. « out of the question. »  
\- « i remind you that you forgot, Naruto. » hissed the rose, an arched eyebrow.  
\- « yes, but as soon as Iruka-sensei reminded me, i ran all over the village to go shopping ; then i picked up Sakura and boom, here we are. »

The blond's voice floated in the house and for a second the forty-year-old thought he was in a dream; one of his dreams where his master and his teammates suddenly reappeared in his life and he felt good, really good. Without waiting for any authorization and despite the stern gaze of his comrade, Naruto rushed into the building, curious to learn more about the place where this man who had been present for so long for him lived; silently, the ashman urged the rose to do the same and closed the door, in a small "click."

\- « of course, Sasuke would have liked to be there, but you know him, eh. » the blond man shrugged. « mr. Uchiha has eyes only for his little and his travels. »  
\- « Naruto, your language, serious. » exclaimed the young Haruno sternly.  
\- « but, what else ? » he growled, a sulky pout on his lips.  
\- « how is that again ? » she repeated, frowning.  
\- « you argue with me all the time, even when i'm nice ; i'm lost. »

The sulky pout on the lips of the young Uzumaki seemed to have some effect on the rose, for in the second that followed she gently slashed her lips on her cheek; and this simple caress sharked the blondinet, immediately. They soon went a little deeper into the house and deposited everything they had brought to the drawing-room table; with their hands in their pockets, the blond-blue apples were all over the room.

\- « how did you know, where did i live ? » asked the ashman, an arched eyebrow.

For so long, he had managed so that no one would learn where he lived; the home of his childhood was lying in a remote corner of the hustle and bustle of the village.

\- « Iruka-sensei, of course. » exclaimed Naruto, with a smile on his face. « it's my reward for being wise and disciplined during the classes he gives me. »  
\- « yes 'end this, it's still strange ; i went to the academy with you, you are not wise and disciplined. » said the rose, hands on her lips.  
\- « i have changed, i am a man now ; and the future hokage of the village, very expensive. »

Gently, the blond banged his fist against the left side of his ribcage, his torso swollen; under the tender eye of the young woman. This damn dream had never left the boy's thoughts and there, at that moment, he was closer than ever to him; she was terribly angry that she had not had the courage to believe in him earlier, when he had fought hard for her.

With a gentle gesture, she touched the blond's cheek with her fingertips and hurried to put some order on the table, where a lot of folders were lying around; with her hands in her pockets, the boys silently observed her gestures, which she soon noticed.

\- « Kakashi-sensei ; i would need cutlery, please. » she exclaimed, in a barely camouflaged order. « and you, the blondinet, help me ; put the files on the furniture over there. »

As the ashman disappeared at the turn of a corridor, surely in the kitchen, Naruto grabbed the pile of papers she handed him and placed it on a piece of furniture in a corner of the room; he was about to turn around, return to the rose, but a photograph escaped from a folder and caught his attention. With his eyebrows frowning, he bent down and picked her up; his bluish prunes did not detach themselves from these four faces, which lag on the paper, especially from that face so similar to his.

The sound of cutlery gently hitting the wood of the table drew him from his contemplation and he glanced at his master and his teammate, the photo between his fingers.

\- « will i be able to get a copy of this picture, Kakashi-sensei ? » asked the blond, in a soft voice. « i don't have a picture of my parents. »

A small hint of suffering was born in the bowels of the ashand and he gently approached his pupil, shaking his head from right to left, gently; he caught the photograph, looked at it for a moment, and smiled.

\- « i have something better for you than the photo of my old team. » announced the forty-year-old.

He gently pulled out one of the drawers of the furniture and searched for a few seconds; when his fingers touched what he was looking for, his smile grew slightly and he stuffed a picture into his student's hands. With wide eyes, breathless, the blond silently contemplated the photo; his father stood upright, his torso swollen, in the white tunic of the hokage, and his mother, near him, sported a soft expression, a protective hand on his rounded belly, they both smiled, with that smile they had bequeathed to their little boy.

Delicately, the ashman ruffled the locks of a handsome blond of the boy and returned to the rose, placing the various cutlery on the wood of the table; in an indiscreet sniff, Naruto gently poured the photo into one of his pockets and caught the cake, which was still lying in the pastry box. The ashman's eyebrows frowned when he realized it.

\- « Naruto. » he called, softly. « did you buy it at Hinae'pastry shop ? »

With a big smile on his face, the young Uzumaki nodded.

\- « i absolutely remembered that you liked the cakes they made. »  
\- « how did you do it at that hour ? » exclaimed the ashman, surprised.  
\- « i used the map of the orphan and hero of the fourth great war. »

The words of the blond were painfully reverberated to the hearts of the other two, present in the room, yet the smile on his lips did not fade; he was there and this simple image put balm in their hearts.

In a clumsy impulse, he caught the knife in the middle of the table, ready to piece the cake apart, but the rose hurried to take it back, an arched eyebrow.

\- « out of the question. » she exclaimed. « don't ruin all the beautiful things you've done tonight. »  
\- « but.. Sakura. » sighed the blond, a sulky pout on his lips. « it's not nice. »  
\- « keep being wise tonight and maybe i'll free up some of my time for a date with you. »

The information drew a big smile from the blond, who nodded happily, settling properly on the wooden chair; the ash's brown prunes were unable to escape away from the smiling faces of his students. It was so strange, the way he had seen them take flight, to be someone, to fight for humanity; this way he felt proud, almost like a father, he who was constantly bathed in solitude and sadness.

The young woman placed the shares on their respective plates and they wished each other a good appetite; the first bite drew a little sigh of comfort from the forty-year-old. How long had he not tasted one of those damn cakes? The sweet laugh of the blondinet floated to his ears and he sketched a smile, under his mask.

\- « hey. baka. Remember when you kissed Sasuke at the academy ? » exclaimed the rose, a mocking pout on her lips.  
\- « but why do you remind me of that, Sakura. » moaned the concerned, his eyebrows frowning at the memory.  
\- « you have become a little more the number one enemy of the girls ? » she said with a laugh.  
\- « and you remember when you tapped big eyebrows in the eye ? » swung the blond slyly.

The rose's smile faded immediately and she glanced abadly at her childhood friend, a menacing aura around her.

\- « sorry ? » she puffed, her eyebrows frowning.  
\- « i didn't say anything, sorry, sorry. » the blond hastened to say, a few drops of sweat on his forehead.

For a moment he felt as if he were with Rin and Obito; to hear their voices, their laughter, the dubious jokes of the brown and the delicate attentions of the young lady. A snap of his finger drew him from his haphazard thoughts and he laid his brown gaze on the adorable porridge of his big-hearted pupil; Naruto was no longer that clumsy, silly little boy on the edges that he had recovered under his wing. The seriousness in the blond's features struck him and he arched an eyebrow.

\- « you know, during the war, i found myself alone for a long time with your friend, Obito. » declared the blond, without an ounce of joke in his throat. we talked and he showed me.. certain things, from your childhood. »

The air suddenly missed him, perhaps because deep down he was afraid that his students would learn reality about him, learn that he is not that strong man, so powerful, that he claims to be; perhaps because deep down he was frightened, that one day they would disappear, in their turn.

\- « you are more than a mentor to us. » added the solf voice of the rose. « you are a kind of father, in a way ; you take care of us, since we are children, you are the model that we follow clumsily all this time. »  
\- « without the presence of Iruka-sensei and yours, Kakashi-sensei ; i don't know what i would have become, you know, i did not have a sweet and beloved childhood ; i was the laughing stock of the village, the others hated me, waited for the moment when i made a mistake to attack me but you and Iruka, you took care of me. » continued the blond, painfully. « without you, surely my dark part, that the dark part of Kurama, would have taken over. »  
\- « Naruto.. » dropped the ash, in a whisper.  
\- « it is thanks to you that we stand at this table at this moment. » said Sakura, a smile on her face. « then there's something we'd like to tell you. »

The two students exchanged a silent, intense look and in a gentle gesture, they each caught one of the hands of this man who had cradled them during their childhoods; surprised, the ashman said nothing, breathless.

\- « if it were possible. » began the rose. « if we were able to take a leap into the past. »  
\- « we would do everything possible to take care of you, of litte Kakashi. » said the blond.  
\- « if i were possible, we would erase all the suffering, the bad memories of your life. »  
\- « yes, Sakura is right ; i will take care of little Kakashi, if it were possible. »

The beating of his heart in his ribcage took on a slightly painful appearance and his gaze was lost for a moment on the wood of the table, tears at the edge of his eyelids; surely, that he would have liked someone to take care of the lost little boy he was, that someone would protect his friends, his master, his father. A gentle caress on his bordélic-toned locks drew him from his thoughts and he met with the sweet smiles on the lips of his students, standing beside him.

A « ticking » floated for a brief moment in the room.

\- « happy birthday, Kakashi-sensei. » exclaimed the two teenages, in a soft voice.

The tears he had been holding painfully for several minutes rolled down his cheeks, getting lost on the fabric of his mask, and he sniffed loudly, smiling at the corner of the lipps, when the lips of his two students gently touched his cheeks.  
Surely he was wrong, basically, he was no longer alone.  
And he would never be again.


End file.
